The present disclosure relates to a gas turbine engine and, more particularly, to a combustor section therefor.
Gas turbine engines, such as those that power modern commercial and military aircraft, generally include a compressor section to pressurize an airflow, a combustor section to burn a hydrocarbon fuel in the presence of the pressurized air, and a turbine section to extract energy from the resultant combustion gases.
Among the engine components, relatively high temperatures are observed in the combustor section such that cooling airflow is provided to meet desired service life requirements. The combustor section typically includes a combustion chamber formed by an inner and outer wall assembly. Each wall assembly includes a support shell lined with heat shields often referred to as liner panels.
In typical combustor chamber designs, combustor Impingement Film-Cooled Floatwall (IFF) liner panels are typically a curved flat surface on a hot side exposed to the gas path. The opposite, or cold side, has features such as cast in threaded studs to mount the liner panel and a full perimeter rail that contact the inner surface of the liner shells.
The liner panels are typically cast as part of the casting process the vendor will add gating tabs to the hot surface of the part, which is used during the manufacturing process to feed the molten metal to various portions of the segment. During the casting process these gates are mechanically removed before delivery of the finished part. This is typically done by manual grinding, which may leave some evidence of the gating. This may result in durability issues.